Dissertation In Psychology

Assessment Task:

Please conduct a written report in the format of a reflection journal to present the process and experience of undertaking desktop research.

Assignment Guidelines:

The reflection report aims to encourage you to reflect upon your own dissertation development, to focus awareness on your own style of engaging with this process.

There are some fundamental elements of the research process which you will be required to reflect upon. These are: identification of project topic, ethical approval, and a hindsight reflection on the entire process of doing a dissertation.

Required reflections:

Identification of project topic

• What led to your particular topic choice?

• Did you consider alternatives?

• How did the process of supervision help with topic choice?

• Have you drawn up a plan of your dissertation? See Plan pro-forma attached.

Ethical approval

• Has consideration of ethics altered your proposal in any way?

• Contemplate the nature of these changes: was your idea changed in any fundamental way; what does this mean for your study; did any changes improve your research; did the process of considering ethics help focus your procedure or your method?

• How did the process of supervision help with ethical issues?

Hindsight reflection

• Reflect on the whole process of doing a dissertation.

• Was it what you expected it to be?

• What challenges did you face and how did you overcome these?

• Is your dissertation as good as you wanted it to be?

• Would you do things differently if you could do it again?

Here are some further key aspects of the research process which you could use to base your other reflections on:

Your literature search

· Reflect on the process of focusing your research.

· What challenges did you meet in finding resources, e.g. was it easy to find balanced and credible resources?

· How did you ensure that your information comprehensively addressed the question/hypothesis?

· How did the process of supervision help with literature identification?

· Did you notice any shortcomings in your ability to carry out a literature search and how did you overcome these?

Identification of research question/hypothesis

· What challenges did you encounter in developing a research question or hypothesis?

· Did you consider alternatives or modify your original question/hypothesis?

· What led to your particular choice of question/hypothesis?

· How did the process of supervision help with identification of research question(s)/hypotheses?

Choosing an appropriate methodology

· Did you consider alternatives?

· What constrained your choice?

· What particular skills do you have or need to carry out this study?

· What are the problems and solutions?

· How did the process of supervision help with choice of methodology?

Secondary Data collection

· What have you learnt about research from the process of secondary data collection?

· Were there any difficulties in accessing open secondary data bases? How did you deal with these? Was it easy?

· Do you wish you piloted your procedure before hand?

· How did the process of supervision help with secondary data collection?

Data analysis and interpretation

· Did you consider alternative analyses?

· What constrained your choice?

· What particular skills do you have or need to perform the analyses?

· What are the problems and solutions?

· How did the process of supervision help with analysis and interpretation?

Discussion

· Reflect on the process of relating your results to the wider literature.

· What challenges did you meet in organising and linking ideas?

· How did the process of supervision help with discussing results?

Reflections should be written in the first person (I) and should be in a narrative style based on your engagement with the research process.

Word count: The word limit is 1200 words +/- 10%

Learning Outcomes to be assessed (as specified in the validated module descriptor

1. Be able to design, execute, report, critically evaluate and reflect on a substantial piece of independent, original desktop research.

2. Apply and reflect on key theoretical perspectives and methods in a specific area of Psychology to a novel desktop project.

3. Be able to critically appraise the ethical, practical and professional issues underpinning their research project and the process of supervision

Grading Criteria:

Students should recognise that the marking criteria are weighted to indicate its importance in relation to the information required.